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Krisalphia
Not every mortal soul that lived in Helfar managed to escape to the relative safety of the Jehmarrahj Emirates or Brackolaan. Many were trapped in their arcologies or military fortresses, forced to weather the storms of destruction. Those who survived until the skies finally cleared found themselves all but alone in a new and hostile world with only each other to look towards. These survivors slowly banded into various tribes, learning to survive on their wits and whatever the new blighted land could offer them. The most successful of these tribes managed to move themselves down to the Krisalphia region in the far southern reaches of Helfar, where pockets of untainted water seep up from underground reservoirs disturbed by the apocalypse and offer some measure of nourishment and stability. The tribes, for their own sakes, getting along fairly well with each other- though their primitive lifestyles and mindsets make them rather distrustful of 'civilized' outsiders. The various tribes have become barbaric peoples- what knowledge they may have retained from before the Wars has become myth and legend; stories told by skalds and medicine men about how their ancestors invoked powerful rituals to awaken great and terrible giants made of steel and lightning which would defend them in times of danger. Nobody would have even known these people were here were it not for the rediscovery of satellites, which allowed the few remaining space stations in orbit to spot and track the movements of nomadic barbarians, further allowing emissaries from various civilizations to establish contact with them. With communications opened, many of the more nomadic tribes' yearly wanderings take them farther north than any group had ever dared go, towards civilized settlements; allowing them to trade with (and sometimes steal from) both the Emirates and the holdings of the Blackened Brass Tower. Every so often a young skald or warrior will be sent forth as an emmissary from the tribes in search of knowledge or trade goods, following vision quests appropriate of their shamanistic traditions in search of things that can improve the lives of their people in some way that civilized folk may not see or understand. Of course, few of these adventurous souls ever return home. Many die, getting into unnecessary fights, falling in with the wrong sorts of people, or just being too incompatible with the 'weak' civilized peoples in ways which cause violent backlashes. Others find no reason to return, either believing they have failed in their quests and thus are shamed, or find themselves too comfortable with their discoveries or newfound lifestyles to bother going back. More still simply get lost along the way, their journies never finding an end until they fall in battle or die of old age in lands they had never imagined existed. And those are the lucky ones- more than a few places will shun these barbarians on sight and turn them back, not knowing if they are from one of the more amiable tribes or the ones who are little more than stone age raiders. Helfar Back to Main Page